2-year-old boy likely died from heat stroke, police say

A 2-year-old boy who was found alone in a vehicle parked at a mobile home park likely died from a heat stroke, Shelby Township police said.

Residents of the Dequindre Estates Mobile Home Park found James Nelson shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday and called 911, according to township Police Chief Roland Woelkers. The township’s emergency medical service and police responded and rushed the boy to Beaumont Hospital in Troy, where an emergency room doctor pronounced him dead.

James probably was in the Dodge Caravan for at least six hours before he was found by the baby sitter, police said. When she found the boy she ran down the street to a neighbor’s residence and dialed 911, police said.

Woelkers said the boy’s mother, Adrianna Rhoades, left for work at a nearby telemarketing company Tuesday morning and her roommate usually watched the child when she wasn’t at the home, located south of Hamlin Road, east of Dequindre Road. The baby sitter told police when she woke up James wasn’t in the mobile home.

Woelkers said detectives are talking to the mother and baby sitter to get an exact time when Rhoades left for work and when the baby sitter got out of bed and looked for the child.

“She doesn’t have a normal routine,” Woelkers said, referring to Rhoades. “Sometimes she put the boy in a car seat and took him to his grandparents residence.”

Rhoades and her female friend recently moved into the mobile home park that surrounds a lake, neighbors said. The child’s grandfather, Johnny Rhoades lives a couple of blocks away in the same complex and often cared for him.

“That little boy was Johnny’s life,” said Louis Sardi, Rhoades’ cousin. “We’re still trying to find out what happened. Now the family needs everyone’s prayers.”

Sardi said he couldn’t imagine how the child died.

“Something went wrong somewhere,” he said.

Woelkers said police have had prior contacts with the homeowner and the child’s father but wouldn’t be more specific. The father lives out of state.

One neighbor said she often heard yelling coming from the house after midnight and early in the morning.

But Jean Carter, who has lived in the mobile home park for seven years, said she often walks by the residence and has never noticed anything out of the ordinary.

Woelkers said the child had several baby sitters.

Neighbor Diane Myers said there were several people at the home “all partying on Saturday night.”

“I saw several kids, ages 6 and 7, playing in front of the residence,” she said.

“They weren’t right from the time they moved in.”

Police chief Woelkers said the boy’s temperature when he was found was 106 degrees.